Church, and flowers, and food, oh my!

Day 2 in Puerto Rico went well, though we have yet to begin our work. We attended a church this morning that resembled an American mega church (except that everything was in Spanish) and to the botanical gardens this afternoon. We discovered a wonderful little bakery near our retreat center and ate a wonderful Puerto Rican meal for dinner.

I've asked the youth if they were interested in blogging some, and Ally was my first taker. 

Disclaimer: just as there are four Gospels and four perspectives of the life of Jesus, there are different perspectives of travel. What I called a smooth flight in yesterday's post, Ally calls "terrible." Who knew?!  

Here's what Ally has to say:

"After we got back from the exhausting and terrible flight, we faced more dread! The car rental place took 45 minutes and we sat there the whole time with nothing to do. After searching our way through the maze of streets, we managed to find a restaurant and enjoyed the wonderful meal with a hilarious movie. Back at the retreat, we were served a delicious meal, and a good nights sleep. We woke up to a beautiful Sunday morning with lots of sunshine! When the group got to the church they made sure to greet us with hugs and kisses. Although we couldn't understand the words, we could tell by their emotions the words had God and love in them. Later in the day we visited the botanical garden! It was a lovely experience filled with lots of plants, culture, and iguanas! That brings us to now!"

And here are some pics from the day...

Church:

The botanical gardens are on the land of an old sugar mill. This is part of the mill:

Our large group (from Charlotte, Chicago, Ohio, and LA):

Botanical Gardens:

Yummy food:

Ainsley and Avery sharing "God-sightings":